Weekly horoscopes: Aug. 11-17

Christopher Renstrom is the creator of Rulingplanets.com which is his idea of an on-line, subscription-based, interactive Astrology Magazine. It is based on his bestselling book Ruling Planets, which was published by HarperCollins in 200...

You can do it!

You’ll want to roll up your sleeves and knuckle down when Mars forms a sextile to Pluto this week. This is a highly motivated planetary combo, which means that it’s the perfect time to train for a marathon, to start a new diet (you’ll actually lose weight this time) or commit to that creative project you always dreamed of doing one day. Nothing can stop you. Not only are you determined to change the habits of a lifetime, but you will go the distance because you are supremely results driven. You will find that you can reshape most anything according to your will — within reason, of course. You may not be able to bend spoons by staring at them, but it will be the next best thing.

You'll wake up on Aug. 12 with a burning desire to replace that old couch that's on its last legs with something new. And once you get started with one piece of furniture, it will be impossible to stop there. In fact, you could be pouring over swatches and new paint colors by week's end. It's hard to resist the redecorating bug when Venus is passing through that part of your solar chart that pertains to house and home. Thankfully, Venus' conjunction to Jupiter brings good fortune in the form of price breaks, closeout sales and layaway plans.